Monday, March 14, 2016

Signs of Spring! What I KNOW...and how.

Hey guys!

So... it's been a pretty good week. Spring is coming! It rained several times, and all of the birds are returning; we saw seagulls flying around our apartment complex yesterday! I'm really excited for all of the snow to be gone. Oh, the days when I loved the snow. They are now gone. Running on snow in the morning has actually messed up my feet so now I have to stop until the snow is gone. Stupid Arizona feet.

Something funny that happened... well, you know table tennis? Well, Elder Peery and I found some tennis racquets and tennis balls in our closet. So we cleared off our tiny table and started playing literal table tennis. Do you have any idea how hard it is to play table tennis with a regular size tennis racquet and ball on a mini-size table? It's pretty dang hard. We've gotten pretty good at it though. We look very silly, that's for sure.

I taught a couple this week who invited a friend over to hear us. Well, sort of. He was actually there to try and rip us apart. He knew the Bible extremely well, and the first thing out of his mouth as we started was the line from Revelation 22:18.

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."

(For an apostle's words on this important subject, see this link:

This man then proceeded to tell us that the Bible is the only source of truth on the planet, and therefore we had no reason to be there. He continued to tell us that we were liars and unprepared to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

First. I need to make one thing clear.

I'm 18 years old. I'm practically a child still. I don't know this language perfectly and I don't know the scriptures perfectly and I don't know everything about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

But I have been called of God, through a living prophet on the earth today. I am a servant of Jesus Christ and I wear His name on my chest every day from sunup to sundown. This gospel I teach as one of His missionaries is HIS gospel, and this church I represent is HIS church, built on the same foundation of prophets and apostles He built it on throughout all time. These things I KNOW.

That word - to know. Maybe we don't truly understand that. When I state that I know these things, it is not through some intense desire to build a belief into more than it is. It is because I really do know them. I have prayed to our Father in Heaven to ask questions about truths of which I want to really know. And I have felt the confirming power of the Spirit of God testify of these things which I will testify of now.

I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, providing a second witness along with the Holy Bible that Jesus is truly the Christ, that He lives and loves us and that He came to earth once and will come again, and soon. I know that God has called prophets and apostles in these latter days, just as Moses and Noah and Adam and Elijah and Peter and Paul and hundreds and thousands of others throughout the centuries. The prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ today is Thomas S. Monson, and he is the Lord's chosen prophet on the earth. I know it. But all of these truths of which I know are dwarfed by the greatest truth of all.

Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is my Redeemer. He is my Brother and my Friend. I KNOW HE LIVES. He loves me. He cares about me and He cares about you. He wants us all to come home to Him and our Father in Heaven. And we can do that through living His gospel as revealed and taught in His restored church.

Forgive me if I have been forceful in how I have spoken. But these are unalterable, unshakable facts of which I have come to know of myself through sincere study and prayer, and I cannot deny them. This is why I'm here. This is what I share, along with every other missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ the world over. And I urge every soul who reads this letter to see for themselves, to do as the Lord has taught and ask in faith.

It's true. I know it.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

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